lights out

It's Earth Hour in Highland Park - at 113, at any rate: no one else round about seemed much bothered.   And yes, a lot of ecologically sound sprouting bits, and organic Coloradan potatoes, and guacamole, too, and Jude the Obscure to read - Jude's compassion for earthworms, a rabbit in a snare, a cab-horse being kicked in the belly, and so on, seemed highly suitable, even if it's hardly an uplifting read for a Saturday night.

I cheerfully remarked on FB that if Johnson & Johnson could turn off all their office building lights for an hour, so could we all - it was only halfway through the afternoon that I started to wonder why ever they have all their lights on on a Saturday night anyway.   But there are some interesting questions hovering over J&J's environmental commitment.   Recently, there's been a large inflatable rat parked in a truck near their headquarters: this is courtesy of the Laborers Local 78 union branch who are protesting against the use of what they say is a sub-standard asbestos removal company at Picatinny Arsenal.   PA is a scary sounding place in its own right - an armament research and development center on a military base in NW NJ.   What's not clear from J&J's website (though they certainly advertise jobs there.   Yes, jobs!) not PA's, nor the one article I can find about the Rat, is exactly what they do at "the home of American firepower."